Downton and out: Sunday nights are about to get better

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‘Have we all stepped through the looking glass?” Well quite, Dowager Countess.
As Maggie Smith uttered these lines in last night’s Downton Abbey
finale, wasn’t it time to admit that the place had become as much Lewis
Carroll as costume drama?

What a peculiar fantasy land we found ourselves in during Downton’s
second run. There must have been a rabbit hole connecting the front line to
the Abbey: how else could Matthew swing from First World War to drawing-room
sing-song with such speed?

And if the Mad Hatter was accused of “murdering the time”, Downton
rode roughshod over it. Some